Brave New World
by shazarakk
Summary: Between TG and TG:Re. When Kaneki and Touka both decide to face Arima together, they both die, it's as simple as that. They never expected to wake up in an entirely new world five years in the past.
1. Assembly

**This was never intended to really be written, It just sort of wrote itself over the course of the past two days. I'm still working on other stuff, however it is my last yeah of college, so after that you should have a lot more stuff from me** **2008**

Having decided to stand beside Kaneki was probably the fastest way Touka could even have hoped to end her own life.

Even if they'd grown so much stronger in the past year, that was still nothing compared to CCG's reaper, even when double teamed, he seemed nigh-unbeatable, reflexes that were faster than her own, a Ukaku, and blows that were as strong and ruthless as Kaneki's, a rinkaku.

It was honestly no surprise that they were the ones spread out on the floor, their own blood and organs surrounding them.

The one thing they had to show for it? A single, tiny cut above the investigator's left eye, and the scratched lens of his glasses.

In all honesty, Touka didn't even know if it was her or Kaneki that would leave Arima with that scar for the rest of his life.

As for the two of them, ken was desperately pleading for her to run, both his legs in the other end of the battleground. She could feel herself fading, however, her own regeneration almost nothing in comparison to Kaneki's.

She saw a shadow step up behind ken, his last desperate blows with his one remaining kagune being deflected and sliced off almost without effort.

And just like that, the fight left him, the last thing she saw being Arima's infamous quinque IXA piercing through Kaneki's skull and into her own.

And just like that, both Touka Kirishima and Ken Kaneki took their last breaths.

But then they breathed again. And once more, after that. Tensing for another fight, Kaneki pushed himself off of Touka, groaning in effort, as he did, blood seeping from where his eye used to be into where how own was also missing.

At the painful, but rather odd sensation, Touka brought her one remaining arm up to cover the hole on her head, sitting up as she did. She still had both her legs, an arm and one eye, but her guts were spewed out around her, although her ghoulish healing was definitely in the process of fixing that.

She looked over at Kaneki, his regeneration having already half-healed the long slash on the back of his body.

His legs and eye were another story, however, as both seemed to simply have scabbed over, not healing correctly.

It would seem that he needed more RC cells to regenerate properly. She would too, if she ever wanted to regrow her arm and eye, however she was healthy enough to scavenge, and possibly kill if it meant food. Unknown to most investigators, and even most ghouls, every ghoul had an emergency stash of RC cells hidden in their spinal column, just enough to bring out their kagune for a scanty few seconds, but that was plenty time to kill a human, and start eating them.

Touka would need to adapt, play the victim when hunting, for once. Let someone else guide her to somewhere dark and unknown, where she could drag them off to somewhere else, and feast on them long enough for RC generation to begin.

That, and she needed more strength than she had to bring food for Kaneki, who seemed barely conscious.

She lay herself back down, brushing off and removing a few leaves from her intestines, gritting her teeth at the burning sensation that it caused, reminding herself not to cry out.

A half hour later, she was patched up enough to walk, albeit not run, or even throw a single punch.

That would change when she reached the light she could see in the distance.

"Kaneki," she shook him awake. "I've seen some light in the distance, I'm going to see if I can find us some food, human or not, we need it."

He nodded, sitting up and dragging himself towards one of the nearby trees, leaning up against it.

"I'll survive, but my regeneration has stopped." She stood up, turning around, before Kaneki grabbed her hand. "Stay safe," he said, before letting go.

The walk only took twenty minutes, but it was enough time to get her looks in order: The Bottom of her shirt had been torn off, giving it a more rebel-like look, Her stomach having healed up to show what, at least in the night, looked like an old injury. With her bangs covering what remained of her eye, and ner sleeve being curled over her missing arm, she looked like someone who survived hell and came back stronger.

With her stomach knitted up strongly enough for her to actually take someone out if it came to it, and her Kakugan activated for better sight, It didn't take long for her to see an excellent opportunity; A Middle-aged man, in perhaps his early thirties had stopped by the side of the road to piss.

She stood up, and walked towards him, noting that the road was empty either way, save for the lone street lamp illuminating something she couldn't read.

The man was done, and was zipping himself up, Thankfully having wiped himself beforehand, It was often the small things in life like that that made life as a ghoul tolerable.

Seeing him sigh, and start getting in his truck, she called, to him. "Matsu (Wait)", Seeing him look in her direction, and hold still, she quickly deployed her emergency RC cells to her Kagune, the organ flaring out in a brilliant purple and red glow, sending a single crystal in the man's direction, hitting him between the eyes without effort.

Seeing him slump, she quickly dismissed her Kagune, falling to her knees in exhaustion, as the last of her RC cells were used up.

She slowly got up, and barely made it to him, as she fell again, this time on him, almost immediately taking a bite from his arm, warm, rich, sweet blood and meat filling her senses.

Only a few minutes later, she had eaten enough to regenerate her lost limb and eye; so while her body began rapidly churning out more RC cells at the presence of food, she slowly hauled the body onto her shoulders with her single arm. Another twenty minutes, and she'd made it back to Kaneki, Her advanced sense of smell tracking his unique half-ghoul scent.

Kaneki almost immediately perked up when he smelled human flesh, half sighing in disappointment, probably in himself. He didn't enjoy eating human meat, even after his torture, but if it meant survival, he would do it, unlike his past self.

Strange to think, he still identified with humans more than ghouls, even after accepting his other side.

Using some of her newfound strength, she swiftly severed one of the man's legs, his left arm already having been ripped to the bone by herself already.

Ghoul physiology was a strange thing, their bodies used almost 100% of the nutrients within their food, ejecting the spare mass through their kagune when they'd gorged themselves, and shitting like normal humans when they had a regular food supply, It wasn't uncommon for them to remain in almost perfect body shape because of that, In fact, so long as a ghoul even brought out their kagune at least semi-regularly, they would remain at an almost perfect body shape.

That was one of the ways Koma somehow managed to get Chubby, he hardly ever used his Kagune, so his body grew just like a regular human's. That and he was never a small man.

Twenty minutes, and the body almost had no flesh left on in, over 20 kilos in each of their bellies, only the skeleton, some fat, and a few organs that even starving ghouls wouldn't go near.

"Yomo helped teach me to drive a little, I think we can make it to a nearby town without getting stopped by anyone, By then, we should be back to full strength, minus my arm," she grumbled. "Unfair regeneration."

"Agreed." Kaneki mumbled, using his rinkaku as makeshift legs as his had barely regenerated half their thighs, much less the rest of them.

Regardless, it was a slow process, It'd likely speed up, however, as his regeneration tended to do. When they'd made it to the hotel, He'd probably have all but his feet back already, and that's if they sped.

Thankfully, Ken needed clothes, so at least going in without feet and coming out the next day with them wouldn't be noticed.

And, if they grabbed a thick jacket, they could hide Touka's arm that'd be regrown after the night, that would also be good.

A simple thirty minute drive, and they were at a town, the truck coming with GPS, and the, to them, nameless man having a wallet loaded with american dollars helped a lot with knowing where the hell in the world they were.

Pennsylvania, apparently, Literally the other side of the planet.

And judging by the date, and a quick search telling them that their species didn't exist, told them that it might be on the far side of a completely different planet. Thankfully, Kaneki took english at a college level, so they could at least talk to people, albeit slowly.

A few clothes from a local shop that was still open at 9pm, and a very confused cashier that didn't speak Japanese, and Ken was finishing the last of his regeneration, his feet growing their last bit, before the toes would pop out. Annoyingly, her arm had only grown ten centimeters, from where it was cut off by Arima. Stupid Rinkaku regeneration.

Another five minutes searching for a motel, and Kaneki was just putting on his shoes, his toes having finished just a few moments earlier.

Both of them had redressed in the van, Neither of their undergarments having been cut, thankfully, so they looked like a normal young couple, albeit, one with a missing arm.

The hotel manager decided that he'd seen stranger than an asian couple with a missing arm, that barely spoke English with one of the heaviest accents he must've heard, and gave them a room without any hustle.

Unfortunately, they only had enough money for a single night on a single bed.

It was at that moment, that the fact that they were alone kicked in; That one feeling you get when sudden despair hits, and you just don't have an answer.

It was at that moment, that all they had were each other. Firm friends, The only two left of their species.

* * *

 **2009**

"Welcome to :Re, How can I help you." Touka's accent was still thick, They'd only been here a year, after all, However, it was opening day, and Coffee wouldn't serve itself.

They'd started with nothing, Just the car and wallet they stole, but through a hard year of backroom jobs, and full-time labour, They'd scrounged up enough to rent a place in the heart of New york. Just a million people short of where their home used to be.

But now, hopefully, that home was here. At :Re, Anteiku's Successor.

:Re Best coffee in the west. That's what their store said, And by her blood sweat and tears, they'd prove it.

Just ten minutes after opening-time, they had their first customer.

He'd stayed for nine minutes, with a black Espresso, then ordered another to go.

Four minutes after that, another two people had entered, A couple, and they'd enjoyed a set of her Latte arts together.

Just two minutes after that, they had their fourth customer.

And just two hours after that, their four hundredth.

An hour after that again, they were trending on social media. #BestCoffeeInNY

It felt really good.

Their teamwork was impeccable, Ken and Touka switching places throughout the day, always one of them pouring Coffee.

Eight hours later, Both were spent, and the shop was closed for the day.

They'd decided to create a social media Profile :Re Coffee.

And they'd said thank you for the opening. Thank you for all the people that came and had a cup.

And thank you for such a warm opening.

* * *

 **2011**

Two years after the opening, they were one of the most popular Coffee shops on that side of town. They were small, they couldn't help that, but they served the same amount of customers as some of the largest places in town. They were happy.

Especially because of yesterday. Near closing time, when the last of their customers had ordered, they'd sat down and enjoyed a coffee together.

And that's when Ken had proposed.

And Touka had said yes. Very, very firmly.

Of course, The photo that one of their customers had taken of it was trending as well.

They'd started dating just a few months into the job, and after the proposal, someone said that it was about damn time. The two couldn't help but agree.

They married in a quaint little venue outside the city, The shop being closed for the next few days.

It was them, a Priest, and a few of their neighbors, regulars, and not many other people. Someone had still managed to get a picture of them online.

They loved each other, and it showed.

A scant month later, they were caught, They'd grown careless, no CCG meant nobody that could track a ghoul, right? So why be at their absolute best, when even in their own world, their second best was all that they'd ever needed.

It was a stupid mistake, one that could've been avoided with just the slightest amount of vigilance.

Not a suicide victim, but a rapist and murderer. They'd seen him finish, and shoot the girl in the head just moments before.

They killed him, and took his body.

A short time later, the cops found a dead girl, just having hit sixteen, dead from the crime in such a large city.

Bad luck.

They didn't account for the Camera, though.

The next morning, just at closing time, A middle-aged man in a black suit walked in, That wasn't strange, it happened almost every single day, but it was what he said that was strange.

"Ken Kaneki, Touka Kaneki, I'd like to have a word with you about the continuation of your lives here in this city, in private, if possible."

They just wanted to live, It wasn't their fault that they were Ghouls, that the only thing that would keep their hunger at bay was human flesh.

At first he didn't understand.

But they were the only ones, so they told him a secret that they'd kept to the two of them for over three years.

They told him everything, expecting to fight for their lives.

But he understood. He understood everything.

And he tried to help them of all things, all in exchange for one thing.

They'd come when called upon. When the world needed protection from something, they would be there.

They accepted.

* * *

 **2012**

"we'll be stopping in New York to pick up our last two team members." Coulson said, giving the Captain a standard Shield tablet, already displaying the Dossier.

"Ken Kaneki, Touka Kaneki, Non human, special powers, as strong or more than Captain America. Recruited only in emergencies. Food supplied by S.H.I.E.L.D?" Steve questioned

"Their dietary needs aren't exactly what you'd call extensive. They can only eat and drink very few things."

"Such as"

"Human meat, coffee, water and to some extent propanol."

There was a short silence, before Steve continued, "Cannibals?" he asked, cautiously.

"On the contrary, they're not human, we're simply the only thing in our dimension that they've been able to eat. The meat is cloned, so nobody is hurt." Coulson replied.

"And the propanol, That work as alcohol for them?"

"Yes. They also have an additional organ that acts as a biological weapon, though they haven't given us any details, as they're still weary of us, and want to be able to get away, should we not have their best interests in mind. Stronger instances of their species only use it when fighting each other, as other species simply aren't as hardy as them."

Pilot: "Touchdown"

"That was smooth," steve commented

"Latest and greatest," Coulson responded, as they took their first steps out of the quinjet, Right into the parking lot of a quaint little coffee shop.

"Technology's moved a lot in the last 70 years, as I'm sure you've noticed" coulson continued.

"Coffee shop?" Steve simply questioned.

"Yes, You should try it, Best coffee I've ever had."

"Can't hurt." he responded.

"Hello, Welcome to :Re." A blue haired waitress, serving coffee to a patron at the window, said.

"Ah, Coulson-san." The waitress's voice almost instantly grew dry and cold, as she recognised the Suit in front of Steve.

"Coffee shop's going to have to be closed for the next few days, we're calling you in." Coulson said.

The waitress's one visible eye widened, as she called out to the counter: "Ken, Coulson needs our help."

The two heard what they assumed to be a japanese swear, before a white haired man, shorter than Steve, stepped out from behind the counter, coffee brewer and cup in hand.

"Timeframe?" He simply asked.

"No more than 5 minutes." Coulson responded.

Immediately, The waitress went over to the door, and flipped it to closed.

"How long will we be there, and what's the threat level?" she asked, gesturing for coulson and bruce to follow her to the back.

"A few days at the lowest, we can't say how long this might end up taking, so our base has been stocked with edibles for you, coffee included. - As for the threat level, We don't know yet, but our enemy has mind control powers, and possesses an energy source that could wipe out half of america if destroyed. This is Steve Rogers, an enhanced combatant."

Coulson finally sat down, a fresh cup was placed in front of them. Steve quickly shook Kaneki's hand, as both sat down as well.

"I'm guessing this might go public." Ken said, sitting down with his own cup, along with what appeared to be raw meat, Steve assumed it was human, and shifted back a small amount.

Ken saw it, and didn't hesitate in speaking up.

"He already knows our dossier, doesn't he?"

"Yes, as will those who you are to be working with, They'll know your race, and your eating habits, alongside your powers. anyone else on the base, will simply be told you're similar to the Captain. They'll keep out of your business."

Touka returned from another room, suitcases in hand.

"Arigatou." Ken said, as she handed him one.

"Ready to go?" Coulson asked.

Touka nodded, and ken replied. "Yes."

* * *

"That meat back there, You said that it was cloned?"

"Yes, however, when they first got to this world, they lived off of suicide victims and hardened criminals that would have otherwise received the death penalty, When Shield first contacted them, we struck a deal, all their food is cloned, synthetically grown, We gave the idea to stark, and changed the DNA and Genome to humans for The Kanekis."

"Good to hear." He looked over at the Kanekis, Touka's head was leaning on Ken's shoulder, their suitcases at their feet.

"How well do you fight?" he asked. "As well as you, maybe better." Touka responded, looking directly at him. Her eyes were a solid black, with irises as red as blood.

Almost the second he saw them, they changed back to their deep purple-blue colour, almost the same as her hair.

"You've been briefed on each other, now for the rest of the team." Coulson semi-interrupted, handing another tablet to steve, and one to the couple on the other side of the jet.

"First, we've got Tony Stark, CEO and CTO of Stark industries, Created a metal suit with strength almost on par with the three of you. It can fly, and is loaded to the brim with weapons. Profile says that he's arrogant, and narcissistic. doesn't usually work well with others, but has been shown to work together with friends when it means something. He's been having design input on your suits, along with myself, and has augmented them with the best armour and tech he can."

"I've heard of Stark, hope iron man lives up to the hype." Steve responded.

Coulson grabbed one of the metal handrails in the top of the cabin.

"Next up is Bruce Banner, He, and our next dossier will be arriving alongside us, probably a few minutes before. He's a record breaking genius, like stark, only a physicist, instead of an inventor. He is primarily here to track the Cube, however, he can also transform into the Hulk, pretty much the embodiment of rage, easily hundreds of times stronger than the three of you put together, but has almost no control. In short, point him at something that needs destroyed, and he'll destroy everything in that direction. Treat the hulk like a person, and you'll have less problems."

"Says here that Banner was trying to replicate the serum they used on me." Steve said, looking to coulson.

"A lot of people were, you were the world's first superhero. Banner thought gamma radiation might hold the key to Erskine's formula."

"Didn't go so well, huh."

Coulson sighed for a moment, before continuing

"Next up is Natasha Romanoff, Spy, former assassin for the KGB, and top level operative, She's also been injected with a similar serum to your own." He looked at steve, "However, it only increased her bodily functions and durability minorly. What it did do, was decrease her aging. She's well into her sixties, but still looks like she's below 30. that, and her training, makes her one of the most deadly combatants on the planet."

"Seems like you're bringing in a lot of dangerous people, just to capture one man." Ken spoke up from the corner,

"He came here using a portal, kidnapped our best scientists, and has already stolen a lot of materials, Soon he'll be able to build a gateway, but we don't know where to. We already have enough people to capture him, You're here to make sure he doesn't succeed, and if he does, to make sure that whatever he builds doesn't threaten humanity."

"As a side note." Coulson started. "We finally finished the design you wanted, Miss Kaneki." The female quickly perked up, almost bashing her husband on the jaw as she pulled her head off his shoulder.

"The Pill?"

"Yes." Steve looked confused, so Touka decided to elaborate. "The additional organs we have, Kakuhous, are located in different parts of our backs, When we activate them, our powers are basically supercharged, but it burns off stamina fast. Mine is at the top of my back, While Ken's is behind his kidneys: As such, mine gives me a greater speed increase, while Kaneki's gives him more strength, The way mine activates, however, burns off a lot of RC cells, which are only replenished by eating." Ken took over, before touka got too overenthusiastic.

"Shield have created a compressed nutrient pill designed for our species to use mid combat. It contains the primary nutrients to induce RC Cell growth. Touka is brilliant at fast attacks, but can burn out in as low as 10 minutes, While I'm a lot slower but stronger, and can take at a minimum of 2 hours to burn out."

Coulson took up the thread again, as Steve listened on. "Initial projections are a 90% restore rate, You'll be able to fight another ten minutes after a 1 minute break."

"That's still a liability," Steve mused, looking at the girl.

"We hardly ever push ourselves 100%, even when fighting a stronger opponent, we activate and deactivate our kakuhous several times during each battle, a more realistic estimate of my absolute minimum battle time would be 20 minutes."

"Just make sure to keep going if it ends up like that." Steve said.

* * *

The landing on the aircraft carrier, steve noted, was just as smooth as when they landed near :Re.

and it was no surprise that they had someone to greet them. what was surprising was who.

"Agent Romanoff?" He asked, just to be sure.

She gave a brief nod, before looking at the other three that exited the jet.

"Captain rogers, and the Kanekis. Good to see you here." She looked towards coulson, before continuing. "They need you on the bridge, they're starting the phase-trace."

"See you there." Coulson responded, quickly walking off.

Romanoff gestured for the three to follow, walking around the other side of the jet.

It only took a few seconds, before they could see a nervous, fidgeting man dodging various personnel, next to some form of shield Jet.

"Doctor Banner," Steve called out.

"Oh, uh, Hi," Bruce started, somewhat awkwardly. "They told me you'd be coming, you too, as well." he looked towards the Kanekis, who also took his hand.

"Word is you can find the cube." Steve said.

"Is that the only word about me?" Bruce asked.

"Let's hope it's the only word that matters."

Bruce nodded, looking down a little, before gesturing around.

"Must be strange for the three of you."

"A little familiar for me, Though I can't speak for these two."

Before the couple could say anything on the matter, Natasha spoke up.

"Gentlemen, Lady, You might want to step inside in a minute; It's going to get a little hard to breathe"

Some massive mechanical whirling and clunking noises sounded, and Ken and Touka both seemed on edge, as they spread their feet for better balance.

Steve just looked out of his depth. "Is this a submarine?" He asked.

"They want me in a submerged, pressurised metal container?" Bruce half-jokingly asked.

As the four of them, neared the edge of the carrier, they quickly heard the sound of turbines powering up.

"Oh no, this is much worse" Bruce joked, as a massive propeller moved up beside the ship.

* * *

Touka and Ken had both been walking a little slower than bruce, steve and romanoff, still a little weary of the flying contraption they were now walking through. Their own world was a little more advanced biologically wise, but this one simply blew that out of the water with technology.

"I'm Glad the CCG didn't have this," Touka mused. Ken simply nodded.

"Still, It's pretty cool. I'd probably be a lot more interested if I were a sci-fi nerd, rather than a horror one."

They entered what seemed to be the last door in the hallway they'd been taken the last two minutes.

only to be greeted by a massive command deck. Windows lined the far wall, and over fifty people looked to be working at their stations.

A tall black man in the middle of the room spoke up above the rest,

"good. Let's vanish."

Another girl, halfway between him and the window seemed to reply, though the Kanekis were still slightly off-put by the fact that they couldn't see the ground, or the ocean for that matter, from the window.

"Gentlemen." The eyepatched man called, as he turned around, steve almost immediately handing him 10 dollars, as he walked towards the windows.

"I'm Director Fury, Thank you all for coming." He shook bruce's hand, nodding to the couple.

"How long am I staying here?" Bruce asked. "Not the best place for me, you understand."

"Until we get the tesseract, then, you're in the wind." he calmly responded.

"Better get to work then." Bruce started, "Where are you with that?"

Ken and Touka looked towards romanoff, as she stood, approaching them.

"Come, I'll lead you to your room."

* * *

They hadn't needed to be called in when it came to capturing loki.

They wish they had.

"Monsters make play they are still men."

That was the line that caught the ears of Ken and Touka; Somehow, Loki knew, knew that they were here. He hadn't seen them, None of the captured agents even knew they existed, much less who they were, so how did he know about them.

"How desperate are you, to call upon such lost creatures." Loki continued.

Fury answered, his namesake filling his words. "How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war, you steel a force you can't hope to control, you talk about peace, and you kill 'cause it's fun. you have made me very desperate, you might not be glad that you did."

Loki merely mocked him in return. "Ooh, it burns you to have come so close, to have the tesseract, to have power, Unlimited power, at that. but for what, a warm light for all mankind to share? or something else, something incase you plan fails. only then to be reminded what real power is,"

Fury definitely won that response with his next quip.

"Well, let me know if real power wants a magazine, or something."

Touka couldn't help but snort, as the screens shut off.

"We need to know his plan." Ken spoke, "Thor?"

"He has an army, Called the Chitauri. They're not of asgaard, nor any world known. He means to lead them against your people; They will win him the earth… In return, I suspect, for the tesseract."

"So, we knew he was making a portal, now we know what we're fighting." Bruce spoke up.

"Loki has some of ours under some kind of spell," Natasha spoke up.

"I wanna know why loki let us take him, He's not leading an army from here." steve noted

"Because of us." Ken spoke up. "Because he wants to divide us. He knows that we can beat him, and to some extent knows our battle prowess. He fought stark and rogers, and no doubt he's fought you before, Thor." Thor nodded in reply.

"He has Barton under his control, no doubt he's talked of you," He looked at Natasha. "Somehow he knows what Banner can do, Likely also from Barton."

Ken looked around, before touka spoke up; "What worries me, is that he said monsters, plural. The only ones that'd fit that description would be the three of us." She looked at banner, "no offence," and then at her husband.

"He knows about all of us," Ken continued, "and knows where to hit us. We can't argue now, we need to stick together and protect this ship until we can find the cube."

"Question we need to answer now is, what's the iridium for?" Bruce asked.

"It's a stabilising agent." stark called, splitting off from coulson, who entered with him.

"That means: The portal won't collapse on itself like it did at the Shield base."

He walked past thor, and patted him on the arm. "No hard feelings, point break, you've got a mean swing."

"Also!" he continued, not allowing anyone to interrupt. "It means the portal can open as wide, as as long as he needs. His army will have free reign unless we can find out a way of closing said doorway."

He played with Fury's console a little before continuing.

"The remaining materials, Agent Barton can get ahold of pretty easily. Only major component he needs is a power source. Something to… Kickstart the cube" he concluded, snapping his fingers.

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Agent Hill asked.

"Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes? all the papers- am I the only one that did any reading?"

Shyly, ken and touka waved from the corner of the table.

Tony smiled, before steve interrupted.

"Does loki need any particular kind of power source?"

"He'd have to heat the cube to 120 million kelvin, just to break through the Coulomb barrier" Bruce spoke up,

"Unless Selvig has found a way to bypass quantum tunneling." Tony noted.

"well if he could do that, he could achieve heavy Ion fusion at any reactor on the planet." Bruce argued.

"How, exactly does that help? last time I checked, fusion doesn't have anything to do with quantum tunnelling." Ken spoke up.

"He'd be able to create a wall that particles couldn't travel through, smash two walls together, and boom, atoms between it, fusion. Finally, people who speak English." Tony said, gesturing to Bruce, and to some extent Kaneki. Steve just seemed to sigh in resignation.

They shook each others' hands, and tony continued "It's good to meat you, doctor banner. Your work, on antiproton collisions, and gamma radiation is unparalleled. and I'm a huge fan of how you lose control, and turn into an enormous green rage monster."

"I haven't heard of you, though, aside from the briefing. are you really an alien?" Tony asked.

"You're not human?" Thor asked, stopping his thinking.

The two tensed, before resigning themselves.

"We're not human, but we were born on earth, or at least, an Earth. We're somehow cross dimensional travellers, We're known as Kushu in our world; The closest translation would be Ghoul, Though we're significantly different from your definition of the word."

"I've heard of your species before." Thor mused. "When I was on Midgaard, a few hundred years ago, I heard of strong men with black and red eyes that fed on their own kind. Though last I heard, they died off."

"Could be." Touka mused.

"Regardless." Fury interrupted. "Banner is here to find the cube nothing more, if the worst comes to the worst, then I hope the other you will help." He said, looking at Bruce. "For now, I was hoping that you might join him, Stark."

"Let's start with that stick of his, It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a Hydra weapon." Steve interjected

"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the same energy that powers the Cube, And I'd like to know how loki Used it to turn some of the Sharpest men I know into his personal slaves." Fury countered

"There are many ways to coerce someone to do horrible things, I think, that it changed their perspective," Kaneki spoke up, "Made them think that they are in the right, Another is Torture, and via that, Stockholm syndrome. To find out, we need to understand his weapon."

"We'll take a look at it." Tony said.

"I'll lead the way." Bruce concluded.

* * *

"He's _The_ spy, His secrets have secrets. Is it bugging you as well?" Ken heard Tony ask.

"Uh, I just wanna finish scanning the Gamma-"

"Doctor?" Steve asked.

"A warm light for all mankind, Loki's jab at fury about the Cube. Well, I think that was meant for you," Bruce said, looking at tony. "Even if barton didn't tell Loki about the tower, It was still all over the news."

"The stark tower?" Steve asked. "That big ugly building in new york?"

Tony glared at him amusedly.

"It's powered by an Arc Reactor, Self sustaining energy source." Bruce explained.

"And it'll run itself for roughly a year before the Badassium core is used up." Ken concluded.

"Exactly, Why not bring tony in, He's the only name in clean energy at the moment. It's suspicious, that's all," Bruce said.

"I should probably look into that, Once my decryption program finishes breaking in to all of shield's secure files. Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge."

"That's what that was." Touka said, snapping her fingers.

Steve and tony looked at her for a moment "Sharper senses, I heard some clicks when you brushed your hand against the frame."

"In a few hours, I'll know all the dirty little secrets shield has on this base." Tony Finished. "Blueberry?"

"And yet you're confused as to why they want you around." Steve asked.

"You've got me there, but why not simply funnel the Data off base, someplace where they can research everything they want without me there."

"We already know Loki's trying to divide us, so long as we just restrain ourselves, that can't happen. This is a man trying to start a war, and if we DO divide, he might succeed," Ken continued

"We have orders, we should follow them, At least until we have everything under control," Steve accepted.

"Steve." Bruce spoke up. "None of this seems a little weird to you, They had every opportunity to bring in an expert, beforehand, AND keep him away from their files, yet they bring him in now?"

"Just Find the Cube." Steve said, Leaving the room.

"Here're the notes on possible mind control options that I know of." Ken said, handing them several stacks of paper.

"So far, you two have spent the longest with the sceptre. We need to double check that we aren't experiencing anything odd in a controlled environment."

Seeing that Ken seemed to be done, Tony spoke up again. "That's the guy my dad never shut up about? Maybe we should've kept him on ice."

"He's not wrong about Loki, Neither are you about the sceptre, by the way. We don't know his next move until he plays it, just the bare outline of his plan. Hopefully, I'll just be reading about it." Bruce mumbled the last bit.

"Or, you'll be suiting up with the rest of us." Tony mused.

"You see, that's what's different, I don't get a suit. I get to become the half-naked rage monster that destroys everything it sets its eyes on," Bruce Countered.

"But you can learn to control that rage." Touka spoke up, "Our species, When we don't have enough RC cells in our body, we start to change, Learn to discard what makes us so similar to humans, When we are on the edge of starvation there's nothing we won't do to eat, even if it means slaughtering our own family." Touka's eyes were black as night, the irises red as blood, as she looked into bruce's own.

"The only thing that controls that rage is you, With us, it's our fragile sanity, alongside our food, When one of those is gone, It's the same as you in a stressful environment. You need a catalyst, Bruce. Something to hold on to whatever is left, when the Hulk wants control."

"So I need to find something that'll make the Other guy Scared?"

"No, you need to find something that'll make the Him Surrender control back to you, Make it his best interest to have you in control."

"Thank you."

"I'll go to bed for tonight." Touka mused. "Come on Ken."

* * *

"I'd like to know, why Shield is using the Tesseract to make weapons" That was Bruce's voice. He was too late, it was already spiraling out of control.

"Because of him." Fury simply said, as Ken and an extremely sleepy Touka entered the room.

"Me?" Thor questioned.

"It makes sense." Ken spoke up. "Last year humanity learned that we're not alone, and we learned that those aliens are a hell of a lot stronger than we are."

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet." Thor defended.

"But yours isn't the only people out there, are you." Fury retorted, "Loki's army, However the hell he got that army? We needed something to Jump start us into security, That's the only medium we had."

"Your work with the Cube drew Loki and his allies directly to this planet." Thor started

"A year ago, you said that Earth was Under Asgard's protection, But we had no way to even know what that meant, That forced our hand, we had to come up with something." Fury responded.

"A Nuclear Deterrent" Tony mused, "Because that always calms everything Right down."

"You're both right," Ken said, "Earth needs protection against the things we don't understand, But we need it pointed away from ourselves, What you've done, Fury, is Wrong, But for the Right reasons."

Seeing everyone's attention on him, he continued.

"You all know of the Avengers. When someone comes, Small, or large, we're the first line of defence, and we're squabbling like children. Listen, I think that the sceptre is giving off more than just the gamma ray fields, if it could control someone's mind, perhaps it's slowly doing something to us as well. - Let's at least get our heads on straight, before continuing to talk about this near a mind controlling mcguffin fro-" He stopped instantly.

"Ken?" Bruce asked.

"Do you hear that?" he asked. Touka closed her eyes, and listened.

"We've got an incoming Jet," She said, her eyes now wide, "I thought we were on lockdown."

Fury immediately tapped his comm. "Hill, how many birds are missing, from All Shield bases?"

He waited a moment, before clenching his jaw and speaking.

"Suit up, we've got hostiles."

Just then The computer beeped.

"We've found the tesseract." Tony said. "New york." he mumbled, confused. "That's Stark tower! Loki's gonna open a portal in the middle of 8 million people, we gotta move, now!"

Just as he started to run towards the door, an explosion rocked the deck, and fire erupted beneath Kaneki and Touka's feet.

"Everyone OK?" Fury Shouted, almost immediately getting back up.

"We're OK!" Natasha Called, from a hole in the Floor.

"Peachy," Ken Groaned, Touka helping him to his feet, angry expressions on their faces, Though foot would be a more apt way of putting it, as Ken's left leg was completely shredded from the knee down.

"I'll get you to the Suit, Steve said, lifting Tony off of the Ground, and into the Hallway.

"Hill!" Fury called through his Mic.

"Engine 3 is down. We can't make repairs in the Air until the Debris is out."

"Stark get on that. Coulson, Double the Guards on Loki."

And Just like that, Fury was gone, already taking command of everything.

"Can you Fight, Ken?" Thor asked.

"One minute." He stressed, relaxing, as glass was pushed out of his ruined leg.

Just then, he heard an ear-shattering roar.

"Thor, Subdue the Hulk" Ken said. "Touka?" "I'll get the intruders."

Thor simply nodded, Jumping down the hole, and running after the not so jolly green giant.

Ken stumbled for a few steps, as his foot finished regrowing. truly his regeneration was something astounding even among ghouls.

It was a scant 40 seconds later, that he charged after thor, and another seven before he caught up - only to see the hulk receive probably the hardest smack to the face he'd ever seen, courtesy of Mjölnir, Thor's Hammer.

The Hulk when flying well over twice its height straight into a several million dollar jet plane, snapping the tail in half like it was a toothpick, almost immediately, it tore the wing off of the plane, and threw it back at thor, who ducked under it.

Ken, seeing a weapon in the flying debris, immediately Brought out his kagune, forming it into a claw like shape, and grabbing the wing. He used his momentum to leap over the wing, and throw it back at the hulk, The green giant barely having time to bring its arms up to block the wing, before it hit.

Thor, having seen his ally land in front of him, quickly yelled "Duck!" Before throwing Mjölnir straight at the Hulk's Face.

Impact. Easily enough to pulverise a Ghoul's ribcage, yet the Hulk shrugged it off like it barely hurt, only becoming more angry in the process.

"Thor, we need to get him off this carrier before he breaks half the damn thing," Ken shouted.

Seeing the last of the personnel retreating through a far door, kaneki quickly jumped over to them. "Keep him occupied for 10 seconds," he yelled.

He landed just behind what seemed to be a terrified engineer.

"Thinnest wall to the outside, where is it?"

The engineer pointed towards one of the four walls, and Kaneki nodded, jumping back to the fight with a spinning kick to the hulk's face, and three fast smacks to his arm. Thor had managed to gather himself, only for the huck to backhand kaneki into the far wall.

He'd been thrown just as fast once before, by an enraged Jason, however this still somehow hurt more, despite having grown far more powerful since then.

"Thor, the far wall, that's the thinnest get him off this ship."

Thor nodded, smacking the hulk a few more times with Mjölnir,

"I'll need a runup!" He bellowed.

With that, ken merged all eight of his rinkaku into one massive arm, smacking the hulk a good twenty metres away, almost ironically, into another jet.

With that, thor spun his hammer, before taking off directly into the hulk, launching out of what remained of the far wall, and through the side of the Helicarrier.

He wouldn't be coming back until they landed, at least.

Thor grabbed Ken's shoulder, as they both looked over the empty sky below them.

Only for the carrier to suddenly start tilting violently.

"I'll make sure my brother is still caged, you help Miss Touka rid this ship of the enemy!" Thor commanded.

Ken nodded, racing to the nearest doorway.

* * *

When the fighting was over, the mood was sombre,

It was only the two Ghouls, the Captain, and stark, Romanoff, and Barton, who was apparently fighting the mind control were in the med bay, and Thor and Banner were missing, presumed alive.

"These were in Coulson's Jacket," Fury started, "Guess he never did get you to sign them."

"We're dead in the air, Our comms, trackers, hell, even the internet's down." Fury started. "Two team members are gone, we don't know where. Lost my one good eye… Maybe I had that coming."

"Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the tesseract, but I never put all my chips on that, though, 'cause I was playing something even riskier." Fury paused, grabbing the back of one of the empty chairs.

"There was an Idea, Stark, and the Kanekis Know this; Called the Avengers Initiative. The Idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, See if they could become something more, to work together when we needed them to, and to fight the battles that we never could."

"Phil Coulson died, still believing in that idea. Believing in heroes. We know where the tesseract is, but my superiors don't, As such, I can't officially do anything. If you want to honour the dead, then it's up to you, now," Fury concluded.

At that, Tony stood up, leaving the room.

Touka stood up, and wobbled slightly, in response, fury tossed a small black box along the table.

"The Pills, for prolonged combat."

Touka nodded, and grabbed them. "Let's suit up."

* * *

"Stark, were on your 3, headed north-east."

"What did you stop for drive-through? Swing up park, I'll lay them out for you." Tony responded.

Moments later, tony flew past, prompting Natasha to fire the belly mounted mini-gun. Slicing at least three of the aliens in half, before they could react.

Clint brought the jet over the building they were directly flying at previously, and, in a quite impressive show of aerobatics, dodged and weaved through the aliens' crafts, natasha viciously eliminating the few that weren't dodged by clint.

"Swing the jet around backwards when facing stark tower, we'll jump out." Ken said, Grabbing two pills, swallowing one, and pocketing the other. He handed the packet to Touka, who also swallowed one, however, she pocketed the entire case.

Only a few seconds later, the plane did an almost-sideways barrel roll esque maneuver, opening the Cargo door, just as the ghouls' momentum carried them out of the door, and straight into Loki's path. Ken and Touka both brought out their Kagunes, Crystal spears flying from Touka's pinning Loki down, as Ken went in for a quadruple tentacle slam, right on top of the Asgardian.

The one shot Loki DID manage to fire was swiftly dodged, by both combatants, hitting the quinjet in the left engine, grounding the remaining 3 allies.

After being smashed into the ground by something Loki hadn't known existed for over seven hundred years must've been quite the wake-up call for him. Having the spikes shot from the other example of their species impale him a moment later was likely quite shocking as well.

"Shit." Touka said, looking up, prompting the others to do the same.

"That changes things," Ken mused, cracking his finger, and redeploying his rinkaku.

"I'll see if I can get through that armour, Touka, Kill any stragglers, and get the Civilians out of the way." Ken said, as he jumped onto the massive creature that descended onto the City.

Touka nodded, and leapt off as well, using her Kagune to glide across the City.

"Stark, you seeing this?" Steve asked over the comm.

"Seeing, Still working on believing." he responded.

"I'm on top of it," Ken interrupted. "It's armour's tough, but I can pierce it, I'm going to see if I can rip through its skull."

"Confirmed, Tentacles is tearing through that thing." Stark said, turning back, shooting more chariots on his way back to the tower. "What about Banner?" he Fiinished.

"No sign of him." steve responded.

"I can see him." Touka yelled, over the sounds of an explosion, "ETA- Fuck. Three minutes at most."

"You OK?" Steve asked.

"I'll manage." She simply responded.

'This thing is harder to break and that damned quinque,' Kaneki thought to himself, two of his rinkaku shielding him, two stabilising him, the remaining four pounding against the creatures skull time after time, gradually showing cracks.

Another three strikes, and he was through to the brain. Leaping with the aid of all eight of his rinkaku, he performed another slam, directly into the unguarded flesh, immediately causing the creature to veer to the left, before crashing into the street directly in front of some cops, and strangely, Steve.

Seeing the threat dealt with, steve started ordering the cops around. "You need men in those buildings, There are people inside, and they're going to be running right into the line of fire."

Ken Jumped to, again using his Rinkaku, to swat another Chariot out of the sky, He latched onto the building beside, him, and stabbed another two chitauri, taking their chariot for his own. Shortly realising he couldn't steer it very well, he simply pulled what seemed to be some type of handlebars to the left, and jumped off, watching as it crashed into another of its kind.

"Why the hell should I listen to you?" The cop asked, until Ken landed right beside him from his short flight.

"Because you're the only thing between the alien fleet, and the government dropping a nuke on 8 million civilians." The cop seemed stunned for a moment, before Ken spoke up again. "And he's a captain, His orders are your gospel." Before he could respond, Ken jumped again, using the nearest wall as a handhold, flinging himself even further with his rinkaku.

A moment later, he noticed Natasha and Clint in a spot of trouble, It didn't take him any brain-power that they might not make it out alive without help.

Just as he was descending, however, lightning struck the remaining Chitauri, and Thor came flying in, landing in a slight tumble. Steve also came running in moments later.

"Civilians are behind the police line" Came Touka's voice, as she glided in on her kagune, folding it away almost immediately, as she leant up against a car, catching her breath.

"What's the story upstairs?" Steve asked, as Barton started collecting his arrows.

"The power surrounding the cube is impenetrable." Thor started, only for Tony to interrupt.

"Thor's right, we've gotta deal with these guys."

"You ok, ken muttered to Touka, as she clutched her side

"Yeah, just need a second." she replied.

"How do we do this?" Natasha asked, sending the couple a concerned look.

"As a team." Steve responded,

"I have unfinished business with loki" Thor said, stretching his right wrist.

"He's still active?" Ken asked, "I thought we hit him pretty badly."

"Yes, he managed to dodge, and form an illusion." Thor sighed, "He has almost 1500 years of combat experience.

"Loki's going to keep this fight focussed on us, and that's what we need, Without him these things could run wild. We've got stark up top, he-" Steve turned, hearing the sound of a motorbike.

"This all seems… Horrible." Bruce said waving his arms a little

"I've seen worse." Natasha mused.

"Sorry." was all bruce said, giving her a sincere look

"No, we could use a little worse." she replied.

"Stark, Banner's here," Steve ended their conversation with a few words, only for Tony to reply over the comms.

"Then tell him to suit up, I'm Bringing another space-whale to you."

Almost immediately after that, another so-called space-whale followed Tony's flight path in the distance.

"Doctor Banner, Now might be a really good time to get angry." Steve said, as Bruce began walking towards the creature.

"That's my secret, captain, I'm always angry."

And that was probably the coolest thing any of them had ever seen.

As soon as Bruce finished talking, his skin turned green, and he tore the denim shirt he was wearing into tiny pieces, by the simple expanse of his rapidly growing muscles. He started forming a fist, before slamming into the creatures face with a single punch.

What had taken Kaneki concentrated effort and more than a half minute, and easily over a hundred blows to do, had taken the Hulk but a single punch, in but a single second.

The creature buckled, and bent, its spine and armour snapping alike, as the entire thing flipped end over end.

Seeing that it had no intention of stopping, tony quickly shouted over the comm, and fired a missile at one of the exposed fleshy parts. Detonating the creature in an explosion even 12 year-old ken would have found amazing.

Shielding himself and Touka from the Debris, gained him a quick peck on the lips from his wife, along with a cheeky smile.

"This is kind of nice," his whispered to Touka, folding away his Kagune. "Fighting for everyone, not just the scant few."

"Yeah." She agreed.

The aliens around the city seemed to have gathered, and screamed in defiance; However their roar was nothing in comparison to The Hulk's

Moments later, the portal flared up once again, disgorging another two space-whales, along with easily another 50 chariots.

"Call it captain." Stark said,

"Listen up, Until we can close that portal, Our priority is containment, Barton, That roof, Call out Patterns, strays, and Anything else you can see. Stark, You've got the Perimeter, Anything Gets more than three blocks Out, you turn it around, or you turn it to Ash."

"Wanna give me a lift?" Clint asked. "Right, better clench up, Legolas."

Immediately they lifted off, before Steve continued, "Thor, You've gotta try and Bottleneck that portal, Slow 'em down. You've got the lightning, Light the bastards up."

Thor took off as well. In reality, it made Ken wonder if he could shape his Kagune in a way that made him fly, everyone else was doing it, so why not him.

"Kaneki and Kaneki, Stay between the buildings, Make Stark's job easier, You see loki, take a shot at him." The two nodded, before starting to run off, leaping into the Air.

In the background, they briefly heard steve say, "Hulk… Smash."

It wasn't long, before they encountered their own group of Chariots,

Unfortunately, they were right next to a news crew, shakily starting to retreat.

"I'll Throw you." Ken said, Touka nodded, and he grabbed her with his kagune, spinning rapidly, before straightening out, tossing her straight at the chariot nearest the reporter, taking the both chitauris' head off with but a swipe of her hand.

Seeing the reporter gape in astonishment brought a slight smile to Touka's face, before another one of the squadron turned itself towards her, firing its gun. Immediately, she dodged under the blasts, and pushed off the already descending platform, towards her next kill, She crystalised her Kagune, firing a few shards at the pilot, before slicing through the other with a twirl of her body. Having parted one of them from shoulder to hip, she quickly kicked the top part towards the last of the three chariots, sending the body into the turbine crashing it. She leapt off the second one, sending a few crystals their way, just to make sure all of them were dead.

She landed in front of the reporter, back facing them, Ken, right behind her, dealing with another set of three chariots.

Still having her Kagune out, she fired a few shots, sniping three of them, before Ken impaled the last set, tearing them apart with his tentacles.

She quickly turned around, dismissing her Kagune, and her kakugan, making her appear more human.

"Get back, we can only hold the perimeter for so long." She said, hardened expression, and tense muscles. Almost instantly, however, she turned to look upwards, the camera following her, as lightning boomed from the empire state building, electrocuting over half of the forces that were pouring out, including two space-whales.

"Any updates? She asked, as Ken landed before her."

"Space-whale on 7th, along with a contingent." he said, barely having time for a breath, before the two of them jumped off to inflict more carnage.

"Fuck that was close." The reporter muttered, not even noticing that her microphone was still clutched tightly just below her chin.

"Get their attention, I'll drop down on them." Ken said, grabbing onto the two buildings alongside them, and hauling himself skyward.

Doing just that, Touka, Using her hands, Grabbed onto the edge of the building on 7th avenue, and began shooting crystals at the Chitauri, Taking three of them out before they even noticed her, much less Ken.

Another two were headshotted, before Ken came swooping down like a meteorite, smashing the skull, and being honest, the entire body of one of the aliens, his eight kagune smashing another one chitauri each.

The space-whale that they were initially pursuing was again, being joined by another pair, pushing the corpses that Thor kad killed out of the way of the portal.

"I'll take this one out, Keep these bastards off me." Ken said, and again, Touka simply nodded in response.

Ken used his tentacles to jump right onto the chitauri's head, using all eight of his kagune, merged into one, to slam the creature on the top of its head, already cracking the skull with his first blow. The hit sent him flying, as he hadn't used any of his limbs to anchor himself. Only for him to swiftly drop back down again, forming his tentacle into a large coil with a diamond sharp tip, piercing right through the creatures skull and brain, killing it instantly, and sending it crashing into the street below.

"Show off." Touka called, killing another three mid flying-pirouette, her kagune surrounding he like a ring of fire, before firing another six shards at the remaining Chitauri around them. Killing all but one, which she landed on, breaking its spine.

A single Chitauri was still squirming, its torso pinned to the top of the Space-whale.

Idly kicking its head off, while she approached, Touka withdrew her Kagune, before commenting on her husband's work. "That was hot."

Their moment was interrupted, when Barton called over the Comm "Steve's gonna need some help on 3rd, and I'm running out of ammo."

"Got it" Tony responded, before the couple could breathe, however, Another space whale came heading their way.

"Got another whale headed towards the Empire state building, Looks like they don't want anymore lightning." Ken reported. "I know." Thor replied, "We're on top of it."

"Any strays?" Touka asked.

"Not anymore, Looks like the military's arrived." Barton responded.

"We'll Help you out, Thor, get more lightning going." Ken, stated.

"Understood."

"A little help!" Natasha called. "I've got Loki on my ass."

"Copy." Ken and Touka responded, leaping into the air again.

They had made it halfway down the main road before loki was shot out of the air by Clint, landing on Stark tower.

"We'll get him pinned, properly this time." Touka said, with a grin, Boosting her Kagune a little more, Kaneki keeping up, and Launching themselves one final time to the top of the Tower.

"I might have a way to stop it, Radio Fury immediately!" Natasha called, as Ken and Touka landed in front of Loki.

"Tony, you got that?" They asked.

"Yeah, Radioing in now." he replied.

"You." Loki started, as the two Brought out their Kagunes, having tucked them away during the leap.

"Lost creatures, Pretending to be human, Yet you are above them, why not rule them?" He asked, Curiously, a glint in his eye.

"Why not stand above them as kings?" he continued, drawing a set of finely etched daggers.

"Because we just want to live in peace." Ken sighed, crouching down, alongside Touka, mirroring his actions.

There was a tense second before Ken dashed forwards, crouching low, While Touka jumped, crystallising her Kagune, and firing shards at Loki,forcing him to dorge to the side, or be hit by at least one of their attacks.

Ken pushed his kagune to the left, dissolving it, and launching into a spinning kick faster than Loki could dodge, Forcing him to block with his daggers, only to be forced back by Touka's Kagune, swiping across his brow like an arc of plasma. He ducked under the next swing by Kaneki, kicking him in the stomach, forcing him to the ceiling, Only to be cornered by Touka yet again, as One crystalised wing came down with a rain of projectiles, while the other, still burning, slicing at him multiple times. One of the projectiles pierced his knee, so he decided to return the favour, Throwing one of his daggers, which multiplied into three.

Touka, dodged the first two, but the third, Obviously made of stronger material than anything on earth, sliced into her shoulder. Before Loki could recover, however, Ken impaled his other knee with his kagune, Having still stuck himself to the Ceiling. Loki cried out in pain, throwing his second knife, also multiplying it, however ken simply took the hits, in favour of stabbing Loki another three times, Pinning him properly through all his limbs.

He dropped down, stumbling slightly, as he removed one of the daggers from his thigh, alongside the other two from his shoulder and right lung. Thankfully, his regeneration was fast enough that he hardly noticed it after a few seconds.

"We've got loki. Interrogating now." Just then, another thunderclap shook the sky, and more lightning followed, as another wave of the Chitauri exploded in front of the portal.

"I'm down and out." Clint called. "Out of arrows, and I've got a broken arm."

"I'm pinned." Tony called. "Out in a moment."

"We got a nuke coming in." Fury called. "Council locked me, out, Didn't listen. You've got 3 minutes, max."

"I can close it," Natasha called. "Can anybody copy?"

"Do it!" The captain shouted.

"Wait!" Tony called.

"Stark these things are still coming." He replied.

"I've got a nuke coming in, It's gonna blow in under a minute." he countered

"Aim it for the portal." Ken interrupted. "According to Loki, these things have a hivemind, you kill their queen, you kill them all."

"Stark." Steve said, calmly. "You know that's a one-way trip."

"Yeah." he sombrely replied. Mere moments later, He vanished through the portal, his comm going out of reach.

"Close the portal." Steve said.

"Wait. I can see him." Touka interrupted. Squinting at the sky.

"If we don't close it, we'll be bombarded by radiation." Natasha called.

"Radiation travels at the speed of light, if you see that explosion it's already too late, Let stark through." Ken explained.

"NOW!" Touka yelled, as Tony fell through the portal. Seconds later, the portal began to collapse, taking only a few seconds before it was completely gone.

"He's not slowing down," Thor called, as he started swinging his hammer, however, before he could launch himself, The Hulk jumped through the air, and caught the falling Billionaire.

A half second later, Ken and Touka both followed, having grabbed Loki, Jumping over a hundred stories to the ground below.

When they landed, Ken intentionally hard, making sure loki was in more pain, The team were looking at Tony, sadly, not being able to check his vitals.

The Hulk roared in either anger or defiance, almost shocking Tony awake.

"Whaaa- at the hell." Tony exclaimed. "Please tell me nobody kissed me."

"We won." Steve said, tiredly.

"Yaay, good job guys, tony continued, "Let's take a day off, Just, not come in tomorrow. Ever tried shawarma?" He asked. Ken suspected that he had hit his head, based on the blood just below his hairline.

"How about a cup of coffee, first?" Ken asked, ":Re's just around the corner."

"Coffee works." Tony said, as he laid his head down.

"Loki is unrestrained." Thor commented at the groaning bloody asgardian.

"But he is immobilised." Ken said. "We made sure he'd regret even moving."

Thor clenched his jaw for a moment, before sighing, and attaching his hammer to his belt. "I'll carry him. He will face asgardian justice after this." he said.

* * *

It wouldn't take long for someone with a camera to recognise Touka and Ken's faces, since they'd both been on camera, albeit briefly. Ken's stark white hair, coupled with Touka's Deep Purple would easily cause people to track them, so it was no surprise, that halfway through their coffee break, there was a knock at the door.

The team looked over, seeing a lonely reporter and cameraman, They seemed to Sigh in unison, before they let the reporter in.

"Can I… Ask a few questions?", She asked, Timidly, No doubt new in the Business.

"Just not too loud, we're all a little winded." Natasha said.

"A lot of people are already blaming you for the damage to the city, I think a lot more just want to know what actually happened."

Clint leant forward, adjusting his makeshift sling a little. "S.H.I.E.L.D., Our, watchers, I suppose would be the best word, were studying some old Hydra tech, Called the Cube, Getting what they could out of it, before burying it again, before Loki, the guy that lead the army arrived, Shot up half the base, and took said tech, Along with a few scientists, and guards." He groaned a bit before stark continued.

"Fury, One of the five Directors of Shield, Started calling everyone in, Tracking specialists, fighters, and such." Natasha took off from there

"We also started searching for him, Facial recognition, social media images, the like. When we found him in Germany, We sent a team. Tony and Steve Brought him in, however his men escaped with another part of what they needed to build the portal, and soon came to free him. Thor joined us at this point."

"They started shooting at Hulk." Hulk Bellowed, "But they dress the same as Good guys, So Hulk not know which is which, so Hulk get angry. Had to be stopped By Friend-Thor, and Friend-Ken.

"There was a lot of Chaos, and Loki managed to escape. One of our own Died because of that bastard." Tony said, "Because we couldn't pull ourselves together, and didn't take the threat seriously enough."

He put his head in his still gauntleted hand, before sighing, picking up a screwdriver, and continuing to fiddle with his other glove.

"They managed to get him out, so we chased him here, To new york. I got there first, Hypersonic suit, and all that. Needed a non damaged suit, Managed to deploy in time to get myself not splattered to death on the pavement."

He gave a grunt, before there was a slight snapping sound, and the gauntlet came off, revealing bloody, bruised flesh. "Aaah, that's better." He mused, taking another sip with his other hand.

"From there, we did what we could" Steve took up the thread, "Taking out as many aliens as possible, while we tried to shut down the portal. The Council, Fury's Four equals in shield, voted him out of his own command, and sent in a damned nuke." Steve said. As two people walked through the back, another set of coffee in hand, Surprisingly, a set for the Reporter and Cameraman.

"Tony grabbed it, and pointed it at the portal, sent it through, along with himself." Ken started

"Is that why the aliens all dropped, suddenly?" The reporter asked, now too fascinated to be shy.

"Yes." Ken replied "From what we understand, The Chitauri, The Aliens, are Hive Minded, Kill the queen, and you kill them as well.", He took a sip from his Coffee, Sitting down next to the Bluenette next to him.

"After that, we, brought Loki down from Stark tower, and have kept him here." ken said, looking at thor.

"Oh, I'm not moving my foot, Loki may be a master of illusions, but He can't fool a sense of touch." Thor paused for a moment. "This is better than the one I had last year."

"So to wrap up, The aliens are dealt with, and new york has nothing more to fear from these, Chitauri?"

"Yes." Thor started. "Asgard will take Loki, and deliver appropriate punishment, alongside the Cube: Anyone else tries to activate it, It won't be on your world, but on ours."

"You say you're from a Different world?" The reporter started, Curious.

"Yes, My name is Thor odinson, from Asgard." he started. "We also have Ken and Touka Kaneki."

"We're also not from Earth, However we were born here, and Both Our parents died when we were Young, so We can't tell you much of our own planet." Ken said.

He looked to his left, stark slowly sipping his coffee. "You know me, Tony Stark, from Earth. Asshole borrowed my building without permission." He mumbled, Looking at Loki.

"Steve Rogers." The next man responded. "Just from regular old Brooklin."

"Clint Barton, Guy with the Bow and arrow, and a broken bone. I've done enough shooting for a few weeks, anyway." He responded, leaning back into the seat, sipping his coffee.

"Natasha Romanoff, Shield agent." She simply responded, looking over at The Hulk.

"Hulk, Also Banner. We're the Avengers." He said, taking another bite out of the massive burger in front of him

"A lot of Injuries on some of you, Yet others look unmarred. Some might say that you didn't fight as hard."

"We did," Ken spoke up, grabbing a nearby knife, "But, being not of earth, Our Fighting style and Bodies are very Different," he stabbed his hand with the knife, but before the reporter could scream for him to stop, be brought up the bent knife, "Kushu skin is far stronger than that of even Thor's." He explained, "We also possess advanced regeneration, so even our worst injuries are almost healed." Touka pulled her shirt back a little, revealing a thin, slowly closing cut just above her collarbone.

"Thor Introduced you both as Kaneki, Is that a Sibling name, or something e-" "We're married, He's mine." Touka said, leaning a little closer, to Ken, Glaring at the reporter.

"W-well, Anything else you want to tell us about your species?" She asked.

"We're very different internally," ken started. "We can't eat most items on this planet, In point of fact, a lot of foods that you may find delicious taste disgusting to us, with a few exceptions. One being Coffee."

"Another would be alcohol. We can drink almost any alcoholic drink over 30%, so long as you replace Ethanol with Propanol. It also has the same effect, Though we need several times the amount, and don't stay drunk for long."

"We also saw you fighting with what seemed like tentacles coming out of your back, and You with both Fire and Crystals." The reporter continued.

"Each of our species possesses a special organ located in four different locations of our bodies. Between the Shoulder blades, Called a Ukaku, Below the Shoulder blades, Called a Koukaku, Above the hips, Called a Rinkaku, and by Our equivalent to the Tailbone, Called a Bikaku. We only have one, or a set of two in the same place, The placement causes them to manifest differently." Ken explained.

"I'm a Rinkaku Type, and Touka is a Ukaku, as Such, mine manifest as almost liquid like scaled tentacles, and Touka's manifest as a flaming set of wings, which can harden into crystal form." He pulled out a single tentacle, forming claws on the end, grabbing his coffee mug and taking a sip.

The tentacle quickly did a sort-of melting action, before quickly slurping back into his body in the nearest location.

"Right. What about, the rest of you, Is it the same case of regeneration?" She asked, Looking at Thor and the Hulk.

"Asgardians are a lot tougher than ghouls in the long run, However we don't regenerate as fast, I simply didn't take as hard hits in comparison to anyone other than Hulk."

"And what of other details about your species?" She asked.

"We are stronger, faster, longer lived… Uh, That's about it, to be honest."

"And what of you?" She asked the Hulk.

"Hulk very strong. Very tough." He seemed to hesitate for a moment, before continuing. "Hulk come from experiment, Lot of humans don't like hulk, but Most humans not too bad… Just scared of Hulk, want to lock Hulk away." He seemed to decide to stop there, before continuing to eat the massive burger.

"Are the rest of you Just normal Humans?" She asked looking pointedly at Steve. "I was a soldier in World war 2, Known as Captain America. Experimental super-soldier program. I'm still catching up after all this time."

"Now that we know of you, and a little about your different species. Back to the main questions: Since we've cleared up who is responsible, what can be done to prevent something similar in the Future?"

Tony sat up at that, looking at the camera with a serious expression.

"I've held on to this technology for long enough that people have been experimenting with things that they don't understand, Alien weapons that have been either hidden or lost on or near our world. Enough, Humanity and its allies will start evolving today. What I saw when I was in that portal was more than The Avengers could handle, It was more than any of us could handle. When such a time comes, that we can't fight anymore, then I'm going to make sure that we leave a legacy that can. I see a suit of armour around the world, with Arc reactors at its Core. No longer will humanity rely on long lost relics, but will grow on its own, and will be guided by our allies, Those Older, and wiser than ourselves." He looked at thor, before Sighing in relief, as Thor gave a strong nod.

"As prince of Asgard, I hereby promise that my people will aid you."

"As Possibly the last Kushu in this galaxy, we stand beside you." Ken said, Touka nodding beside him

The reporter was quick to move on with another question. "And can people feel safe right now? Can the world sleep soundly despite what's going on out there?" She asked.

"Right now, we're tired, and we want to just sleep for a week, but you can be assured, that when the world needs us, The Avengers will stand and fight, Even better than we did today." Steve said, sitting a little further up in his chair.

"And what of the cleanup, There's a lot of debris, and a lot of dead aliens out there right now."? She questioned.

"We have our own items to take Care of," Touka started, "But we'll be there when we can." She looked pointedly at Clint's broken arm, and the broken windows and tables in the Café

"A question that I hate to ask, but have to regardless," She started. "What of the damages incurred by all of you, The claw marks alongside the buildings, The missed bullets, and the Lightning that fried half the electronics in five closest blocks to the Empire state building?" She looked sadly at the table for a moment, Before shuring herself, shoulders squared.

"All Damages Directly incurred by the Avengers Initiative will be paid by Stark Industries, Shield will negotiate a fair contract with the government, and will assure that it will hurt the people the least in the rebuilding of this city." Stark quickly responded.

"Thank you all so much for the Answers, And thank everyone for Tuning in, I think it's fair that the people that saved this city get at least a little time to rest, before they help with the clean up, Good night everyone." She said, looking into the Camera.

"You know, you're probably one of the nicest, yet strangely direct reporters I've come across." Tony said, Smiling, and shaking her hand, along with the Camera man's.

"See you sometime." he called, as they left the shop.

 **I might write a sequel or three. Depends on where I go, inspiration wise.**


	2. Winter

**Thank you very much to all the people who read and reviewed. I hope you enjoy this installment as well as the last.**

 **I've changed and fleshed out the biology of ghouls just a small amount, compared to canon. As to their responses, most are half-truths, or helped set up by Tony. WARNING, this one contains a fair bit more gore than the last one.**

 **2012**

"And what of yourselves?" The senator asked. "My colleagues and I, found citizenship papers for Japan, and Visas for America, however none of them-" "Claim that you must be human to possess such qualifications," Ken interrupted, much to the senator's annoyance.

There were about one hundred people in the courtroom, not including Ken, Touka and Tony, who had sort of hired himself as the couple's lawyer.

"There was an 'Alien certificate of registration no.' but considering that wasn't technically covering extraterrestrials, we left that one to our info here on earth." There was a brief chuckle throughout the room, before it settled down. Evidently, Tony had tutored them as much on laws as humour.

"And what of alien diseases?" Stern asked, "Is there anything we should fear in light of your parents' arrival? And your arrival into this state?"

"No, our natural immune system and cell structure prevent our carrying of diseases entirely." was the response, "Besides, We've been living here, and in regular contact with several thousands of humans for multiple years, which I might add, has all been within the time of our visas."

"Very well." The senator admitted. "Our next inquiry is to have a vial of blood turned over to the american people, to research your-"

"Absolutely not," Touka angrily replied, narrowing her eyes at the senator. "First, you have no right to demand such, at no point in your entire list of laws does it state that visitors of this nation must submit any other information nor samples of their blood, with exception of blood type. Second, while our blood may not cause any diseases, nor deaths, when in contact with human blood, causes significant immune response due to our differing species; Our parents, who were learned biologists on our world tested this when they arrived, to make sure that an inquiry such as this would be settled without difficulty."

"Miss Kaneki," The senator attempted to interject.

"THIRD." She continued, "They also learned that the same cells that trigger regeneration and growth, also trigger the immune response."

"Miss Kaneki." he interrupted, fitting his name, "Our own biologists would like to take a look before any conclusions are made-"

"Senator," Tony interrupted. "Which scientists successfully landed on another planet?"

"Very well." He grumpily acknowledged.

"It says here that one mr. stark is already covering the damages." he looked at Tony, who simply nodded.

"And what will you be doing otherwise, to help clean up the mess that you helped cause?" he asked.

"Glossing over the fact that an extraterrestrial force known as Chitauri, not Kushu, did most of the… mess, we have already offered our services for heavy lifting, as well as providing free coffee for anyone wearing a hardhat until the city is cleaned up." Ken responded.

The senator clenched his jaw a little, before shuffling his papers.

"As for the next issue, we're going to have to register your abilities and species specifics, including destructive abilities, and what you will be able to do for the United states and her allies."

"Objection." Tony called. "That is a civil rights discrimination. By definition, one Ken Kaneki, and Touka Kaneki are a minority group, and as such are exempt from such laws. Minority groups are defined by, and I quote, 'differences in observable characteristics or practices, such as: sex, ethnicity, race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity.'"

"I don't see how the subjects in question fit into any of those roles." The senator countered.

"An inability to consume human food not based on choice but bodily needs, be it mentally diagnosed, physical needs, or allergies is classed as a disability by the law." Tony concluded.

"What part of the typical human diet are you unable to eat."

"Every part." Ken answered. "Our species, when eating typical and non typical earthen foods will have a violent reaction, which includes an inability to digest, sickness, nausea, mild fever, abdominal cramps and occasional vomiting."

"Regardless, we will have to know the dishes and foods that you cannot eat," the senator started, only to be interrupted by Touka.

"Just to make sure, you're asking us to list every single dish, food and condiment that is non-consumable to our species?"

"Yes." was the simple reply.

"Clear your schedule, we'll be here all week." she fridgedly countered.

"Perhaps a list of items that you can ingest," another senator asked.

The married couple looked up at the senator, waiting for him to nod.

"Okay, i hope it won't take all week, as you say." he attempted to joke.

"Coffee, Including the beans, which has the same effect as coffee to humans, as well as relaxing our muscles very slightly." She started.

"Propanol, Which has the same effect as Ethanol to everyone else here, although minimised, due to our immune response. Meats found on our home world, for obvious reasons. Kushu meat, although in large amounts, it can causes a similar effect to mad-cow disease. We can also ingest water in all its forms." she replied.

"How have you been surviving here on earth?" the senator asked, genuinely confused.

"Our parents provided for us in our early years, we were later contacted by SHIELD, who were given the genetic code for some of our edible meats. It lacks variety, but cooking makes up for that."

* * *

When the honestly ridiculous court inquiries were over, and the 200 mile journey back to new york was over, they sort of settled back into their daily routine. Clint checked in with them every so often, alongside Natasha, who it turned out had a fractured sternum. The pair helped Ken and Touka with waiting duties when the two of them were out lifting heavy things, as they promised.

Steve also came by a few times, although he was still catching up with modern culture, so he was busy a lot of the time as well.

To nobody's surprise, the Hulk didn't help… well, bruce did, but the hulk was a destructive enough force that even his footprints would leave cracks in the concrete, even just while walking.

Tony, while often busy repairing his own tower, did do a few flybys, occasionally lifting a few things, and notably, according to the news, did some welding. Apparently it surprised people that the billionaire down the block knew such common skills.

As he promised, though, he did pay for a lot of the damages, although it didn't really dent his bank account, it was still seen as goodwill among the people.

The shattered remnants needed more than heroes, Ken thought, and that's exactly what they were. Heroes always fought the good fight, and never stood by and watched the wreckage that their battles had caused. But that was what they were doing.

And the people were noticing.

A lot of the news was actually with them, for once, not something the two were really used to, given their Ghoulish nature. Just like their media attention regarding :Re, it felt good. Good to be the good guys on both sides, for once.

Naturally, they were seen on social media, too. And again they were loved by the people.

When they'd first been recognised, it was a half-skeptical distrust. They were there all along, but nobody knew much about their species, and as such nobody really trusted them beyond making the coffee, Ironically.

After their hearings, and a good part into clearing up the City, they were back with the people. Their will for rebuilding those around them, and not just themselves was something the people quickly began to see from their perspective. Earth, New york, was their home. And they would protect it just as much as they would their own world.

When the interviews aired, and more detail was found, it was no surprise.

A few months went by, and the builders, carpenters and engineers went away. A few more, and everything seemed to be back to normal. Tony disappeared again, his mansion was blown up, and a few talks with pepper had her on a jet to the newly redubbed Avengers Tower.

A few days later, yet again, Tony turned up, saving the staff of Air force One, only to disappear yet again. Honestly, it was quite frustrating having their friend be dead, then not be dead, then vanish, then reappear, saving the president, then gone again for another two days.

It was a long week.

* * *

 **2014**

A year later, and the world simply felt… normal. Nothing special, with exception of the odd fan or two entering the shop. They'd seen more weird things on tuesdays, and that was saying something. Tuesday was the most normal day of the week, everyone was awake, no-one hated tuesdays, as monday was always the worse. They worked weekends, so they didn't really have an opinion on that case, but nevertheless, Tuesday was normal, and therefore, tuesday was good.

And then SHIELD branded Steve Rogers a fugitive.

Ken and Touka wanted in. They needed to know what was going on.

The phones wouldn't work, Their so-called untraceable calls were routed through SHIELD, which meant they were now exactly the opposite.

Two days, and nothing, not the hint of a contact, nothing.

And then Steve and Natasha turned up at their door, Rustled, dishevelled, dirty, and burned. "I'm sorry about this, but we need a place to lay low." Steve said.

"Everyone we know is trying to kill us." Natasha continued.

"Not everyone." Ken said, and let them in.

"The shower is yours," Ken said, opening the first door on the left. "Spare rooms on the right. I'll get you some coffee," he nodded to Touka, and she took over. "I'll get you some fresh clothes."

"Dibs," Natasha mumbled to Steve, who smiled faintly in response.

"Good to see you again," Touka mused, opening the couple's room, and getting out a set of clean clothes.

"Yeah," Natasha agreed, taking the clothes. "Never heard of these guys." She said, looking at the band t-shirt she was holding.

"Good, It'll help you blend in." she said, before playfully pushing the other girl towards the shower. "I'm sure you enjoy dirty hair as much as I do."

She sighed, a small half-smile on her lips, as she turned to Steve, a faint smile on him, too.

A short second of thinking later, Touka snapped her fingers, and moved to a completely different room, grabbing a shirt and pants that looked large, even for Steve.

At his inquisitive look, she simply shrugged. "Ken's clothes wouldn't fit you, and mine definitely won't."

When Natasha descended the stairs in the quaint little Coffee shop known as :Re, she didn't expect to see Tony stark on the Ground floor, Especially since it was evening.

"When did Tony get here?" She asked.

"Hm?" he asked, coffee in hand. "Oh, I've been here since closing time. Still the best Coffee in this city, by the way.

After Steve had joined them, just a scant few minutes later, Natasha spole up: "So the question is, who at SHIELD could launch a domestic missile strike."

"Pierce." at the confused looks of the three in front of him, Steve elaborated.

"Current Director of SHIELD. Took over after Fury died."

"Who happens to be sitting on top of the most secure building in the world." Natasha continued.

"He's not working alone," Tony said, "No way SHIELD would brand the perfect american soldier a traitor without half of the organisation rebelling."

"Besides," Steve spoke up. "Zola's algorithm was on the Lemurian Star."

"So was Jasper Sitwell." Natasha stated.

There was a brief glance between them, before Steve started brainstorming. "So the real question is, how do the two most wanted people in America kidnap a SHIELD officer in broad daylight."

"You're assuming that we don't have your backs." Ken said, crossing his arms. "We're in this together, we need to know if we can trust SHIELD, hell, the only reason we have food security is because of them."

"Aside from us, they're the only ones protecting this world. And if I don't know why they just branded their best soldier a traitor, you can be damn sure I'm going to help you find out."

Steve and Natasha smiled, and nodded. Tomorrow would be a tough day, but for now they had to plan.

* * *

A good night's sleep later, and they were on their way to DC, back to the triskelion.

Of course, they were on Tony's private jet, so the journey would probably only take twenty minutes.

Honestly, the full avengers suits were a little over the top, but the point remained, If the world saw them, they needed the publicity. And if they didn't, well, hopefully, it wouldn't matter.

Tony was topping off his second generation suitcase suit, and Steve was putting a long coat over his uniform, when they landed.

"So, I was thinking, is there any way that you could take over the cloning of our foods?" Ken asked. "Well, I did technically invent the methods, it wouldn't be too hard."

"Thanks," he said, rolling his shoulders a little. "Nice car by the way." he continued, looking at the Rolls Royce on the runway.

"You want one?" Tony half-jokingly asked.

"Wasn't christmas five months ago?" Tony simply looked at him and snorted slightly.

"No, we don't really drive anywhere, maybe in the future."

In all honesty, the drive was a little boring. A little smalltalk here and there, but at least the leather seats were nice.

That and the car came with Jarvis installed, which was a surprise. In retrospect, it was sort of expected, considering the car belonged to Tony stark, but the point was that Jarvis made the mission exceptionally easy, he'd hacked into SHIELD's servers and found Sitwell's schedule in just four minutes.

When they got there, Sitwell had just exited the building. They were slightly late, due to DC traffic, but thankfully he was talking with the annoying senator they had to deal with almost two years ago.

One lipreading by Touka later, and they confirmed that he was HYDRA. They already knew that remnants of the organisation isation were still at large, considering that one of said remnants had taken Loki's sceptre, but having people that high up in the system was worrying. At least it explained why the senator was such a massive dick.

When they asked, how Touka learned to lip read her only response was a shrug, and saying that she was bored one day.

Ghouls had exceptional senses, sight included, so it honestly wasn't overly difficult for her, and she WAS a quick learner, despite almost failing high-school. She just really hates classical literature. That and she never had a formal education until said high-school.

Regardless, they had their target, and Natasha quickly prepped her laser sight onto Sitwell's tie, while Steve called him.

"Yes sir?" Sitwell asked. Thinking that it was Alexander Pierce's number.

"Look at your tie." Steve simply said. When he did, he started looking around frantically.

"You see the Rolls-Royce a half,block down?" He asked, and Sitwell simply nodded. "Get in it, we're going to have a talk." Again, he nodded, and closed the phone, half walking half jogging, laser still affixed to his tie, although Natasha occasionally aimed at his crotch when he was checking that it was still there. He noticeable swallowed when that happened.

A short drive later, and they all got out, and walked into a nearby building, and onto the roof, easily twenty stories up.

The interrogation wasn't started as you'd expect it. There was no beating people up, not further if any kind. When they got to the rooftop, they sat him down on a spare chair in front of Touka. "Tell us about Zola's algorithm," Steve started.

"I've never heard of it." He answered, sweat already beading down his forehead, as he was forced to stare at the petite girl in front of him.

Her eyes narrowed, and he gulped.

"You're going to tell us about the algorithm." Steve simply said. He'd only been glared at by Touka once before, and In All honesty, it was one of the few things that made him feel incredibly small. Even after the experiment, that was the only time he'd felt completely helpless.

"I don't know about it." He continued, And Touka's eyes narrowed further.

Her pupils dilated, and her irises turned red, and Sitwell gulped again. The change continued to her sclera, turning the white to black, red cracks running further past her eyes and onto the side of her face and temples.

He held his silence, which was admirable, considering the outright hostility in that glare, only for the petite girl to pick him up by the neck, one handed, walk a few steps and toss him over the rooftop.

A few seconds passed of him screaming, while Steve and Natasha discussed some girl from accounting called Lilian.

Another second passed, and Tony flew over them, dropping Sitwell on the other half of the rooftop, allowing him to roll a few steps, before stopping the agent with his boot.

Sitwell clambered to sit up and correct his glasses, and just moments after he'd taken his hands away from his face, there was a black and red needle-sharp tentacle in front of his face. He didn't have to ask to know that the tendril belonged to Ken Kaneki.

And oh god it was moving closer.

"I'll tell you, please," he screamed, scrabbling backwards into Tony's legs.

The tentacle froze, and slowly split into three, correcting his glasses, before retreating into Ken's back, his blood red eye staring back at him.

"Zola's algorithm is a program, for choosing Insight's targets."

"What targets," Steve asked, only for Sitwell to almost hysterically interrupt.

"You. All of you, Bruce banner, Stephen strange, the other secretary of defence. Anyone who is a threat to hydra, past present or future."

"How could it know," Steve asked angrily, squatting down in front of him.

"How could it not know? Sitwell asked rhetorically, only for Tony to continue his train of thought.

"Digitisation. Cameras, recordings, social media. Everyone's lives are out in the open For everyone else to see."

"Exactly," Sitwell responded. "The world is an open book, Zola simply taught hydra how to read it." He stood up, and continued. "Zola's algorithm reads people's past to predict their future."

"What then" Steve asked, only for Tony to interrupt before Sitwell could continue.

"Project Insight." He started. "Eliminate a thousand targets a minute, that's what Fury said, right?"

"The Insight helicarriers will scratch people off the list, a few million at a time."

* * *

"Insight is launching In a little more than sixteen hours," Natasha said, "we can. Use his DNA scans to go straight to project Insight's launch bays."

"Or, we could go there, and smash straight through the doors, and disable them the hard way. Destroy the PID systems or gyroscopes, and they'll simply tip over." Tony said.

"I prefer that plan," Ken spoke up. "Besides, the sooner we get there, the sooner we can let Sitwell out of the trunk."

It's a large trunk, I'm sure he'll be fine," Touka argued, only for a muffled shouting of "I'm not fine" to be hard from the trunk. "I didn't hear anything, did you?" She asked, rubbing her ear slightly.

Barely two seconds after Touka finished talking, a loud 'thunk' was heard, before a fist struck the window with incredible power.

Tony immediately stomped on the brakes, causing the fist, as well as the person attached to it to go flying, stopping himself with his robotic arm, scraping four long gauges into the concrete.

Immediately Tony flipped a switch, and pressed his thumb on a scanner, causing a suit to fold out of his seat and onto his body. During the process, the steering wheel shifted to the captain's side, and two pedals flipped down by his feet. Not needing another hint, Steve immediately took the wheel, and powered forward, towards the figure.

Before he could slam into him however, he jumped over the car, grabbed onto the roof, and fired at it.

The bullets pinged off harmlessly, and Steve drove over to the nearest exit. Seconds later they were rear-ended by a large truck,sending the metal armed mad onto the hood of the car, where he started punching the windshield again.

Another punch, and he simply ripped the steering wheel out of the car, straight through the shattered glass.

Steve stepped on the brake again, and Tony triggered the locks of the car, allowing them to exit, albeit at highway speeds.

At the second braking, the soldier jumped from Tony's car, and onto the bonnet of the other.

Almost immediately after they were done exiting the car, they could see the solder, already ready for combat, wielding a grenade launcher. Steve quickly pushed Natasha out of the way, and took the hit on his shield, sending him flying off of the highway.

Just after that, there was immediately suppressive fire, pinning Natasha down, although Ken Touka and Tony were all able to move freely.

Tony jumped over his now previously favourite car, and fired his repulsors, taking out two enemies, Ken and Touka both weaved around the car, Touka firing her Kagune at the enemies, her crystals slicing through the SWAT gear with ease.

Ken jumped forwards using his signature slam, taking out two more goons, before swiping his tentacles to the right, after the metal armed man.

He jumped over the tentacles, and fired a few shots from his sidearm, only for them to bounce off Kaneki's skin harmlessly.

Seeing the ineffectiveness of his weapon, he brought the grenade launcher back up, and, not even hesitating due to his closeness, fired two shots at ken.

Ken swatted one away with his Kagune, detonating the shell, and dodged the other, at the stinging pain, and charred scales on his extra limb.

Bullets, knives and swords wouldn't hurt them, but shockwaves and fire could still do damage.

That's when one of the remaining goons brought out a minigun, and started firing at Tony. Even his suit would have trouble against sustained armour piercing fire, so he quickly spiraled upwards, and fired a few repulsor blasts down at the gunner, killing him after a few shots.

While nowhere near as good as Kishou Arima, The man, now known as the winter soldier, thanks to Natasha having informed them of his name, was holding his own. Most of his moves were simply dodging Ken and Touka's attacks, while Tony dealt with the remaining goons, however he was managing to slip in a few punches with his metal arm.

Tony, noticing the news chopper up above them, quickly dealt with the last one non-lethally, knocking him out, before flying towards the soldier, drop kicking him in the chest.

A drop kick is probably one of the most powerful forces the human body can exert, one by a regular, average man or woman could easily break several ribs, and even cause heart failure in some people. A supersolder would most likely pulverise a ribcage, and snap a spine in a single kick. When you add a 100 kilo metal suit to the mix, and then add another fifty kilometres an hour to the speedometer, you have an attack that would almost instantly crush the torsos of even the strongest, hardest trained people in the world. The fact that the winter soldier only took five seconds to stand up, instead of the half second he did when ken had managed a lucky hit was a testament to his strength.

When he kept fighting beyond that, grunts of pain whenever he moved, was also an incredible feat. a few moments later, however, when the last of the additional goons that were apparently late to the party had also been dealt with, the man decided that enough was enough, and decided to book it.

Steve, having recovered from his bus-travelling adventure, quickly engaged the soldier, not wanting to allow him to get away.

A few blows between them later, and his mask was pulled off. Steve hesitated, and the winter soldier got away.

Touka quickly jumped ahead, wanting to quite literally sniff him out, but before she could, a number of black vans and SUVs intervened, cutting off the path with the smell of gasoline, and burned rubber.

Seconds after, roughly forty people in riot gear jumped out, and started pointing guns at them. "GET DOWN!" and "HANDS ABOVE YOUR HEAD!" were among the few epitaphs that were yelled.

"Do it guys," Tony said. "That chopper is with them, it only filmed us doing the destruction."

A few seconds of deliberation later, and they did as asked, retracting their limbs, and dropping their weapons. In Tony's case, he simply powered down his repulsors and extra weapons for the moment.

A moment later, and they were in an APC, the only one without heavy steel clamps around their limbs being Natasha, who had unfortunately been shot during the fight.

"It was Bucky." Steve mumbled, "I saw him, and he didn't even know me."

"The legend of the winter soldier is just as old as you are," Natasha mumbled, "I wouldn't be surprised if they kept him on ice just like you."

"Listen." Ken said, looking towards the guards, "If we don't stabilise her wounds, she could bleed out."

The guard quickly brought out some strange mix between a baton and cattleprod, and, just as ken was about to say that such a device wouldn't do much to a ghoul, the guard slammed it into their friend, kicking them in the face a half-second later, knocking him out.

The guard rapidly removed their helmet, revielling agent Hill, surprisingly actually from SHIELD, despite their now likely enemy status. Admittedly, Half the avengers just had an unsolicited battle right in the middle of the capital of America.

"Ugh, that thing was squeezing my brain." she mumbled,

"I guess that means we can escape now." Tony said, his helmet reengaging. Almost instantly, all of them snapped their restraints, Tony and Steve simply pulled them apart, while Ken and Touka brought out their kagunes and sliced them to pieces.

The moment the cars stopped, Hill took out some type of torch shaped device, and started cutting away at the floor, and slicing right through the concrete and sewer systems below.

Just ten seconds later, they were completely vanished.

* * *

After a brief discussion regarding how he was alive, and why they didn't know about it, they were sat in a briefing room.

"This man declined the nobel peace prize. Said that it wasn't an achievement, but a responsibility." Fury put down the picture of Alexander pierce. "You see, it's stuff like this that gives me trust issues."

"We have to stop the launch, you're just holding us back from it at this point, we already know where and when." Ken said.

"Or, you could do it the stealth way." Fury said, pulling out a briefcase, revealing three data-chips.

"And the stealth way is replacing the targeting systems." Tony muttered. "This is almost as bad as Staine was."

"These aren't the originals," Fury said. "They won't take out every hydra agent, and spare civilians, Hell, they won't even aim at any people."

Tony looked up for a moment at Fury, before he continued.

"I already knew that you'd want all of SHIELD taken out, rebuilt completely from scratch. These chips will ensure that the helicarriers will target each other, nothing more nothing less."

"I'm guessing we need all three." Ken mused.

"You need to do it before the carriers reach 3000 feet, or just under one kilometer. If they reach that height without the chips in, we've already lost."

"Let's go." Tony said. Flipping his helmet up.

Moments later, they were out of the hovel, and on their way to the Triskelion.

* * *

They had divided themselves into teams. Natasha would infiltrate, using a biopolymer illusion cloth, Otherwise known as fancy makeup and good acting, Tony would knock out their systems with help from Jarvis, and would intervene if the Carriers managed to launch. Steve and the Kanekis would make their way through the base, brief the non-hydra staff via the intercom and simply smash through security, until they got to the carriers.

Natasha was already in, having taken control of the sole female council member. She was already meeting with Pierce. It wouldn't take long for the main group to get into the building, especially since Steve had just punched the doorman's lights out in a single blow.

An elevator ride later, and they were in, weapons, well, limbs facing towards the lone techie that just unlocked the door. They were originally going to smash the door in, hence why Ken's kagune was out, however when the doorman unlocked it, he simply decided to keep it there for intimidation purposes.

A brief walk to the PA system, and they were golden. Steve had grabbed his old uniform from a museum on the way, albeit which museum, they didn't really pay attention to, so with the Kanekis' skins, and Steve's clothes, they were all bulletproof. And, ruthless as hydra was, they wouldn't destroy one of their central command units. Not because of the people, but because of the tech that was there, tech which would be useful for launching Insight.

No doubt there was a backup somewhere, or even just manual controls on the ships, but the point still stood.

"Attention all SHIELD agents, This is Steve Rogers. You've heard a lot about me over the last few days, and a lot about the other avengers, how we were arrested, and taken away." he paused for a moment, sighing, before continuing.

"Some of you were even responsible for arresting us. But i think it's time you know the truth. SHIELD is not what we thought it was, it's been taken over by HYDRA. Alexander Pierce is their leader. STRIKE and Insight crew are hydra as well, I don't know how many more, but I know that they're in the building. They could be standing right next to you." he paused again, this time it was definitely for dramatic effect. Soldier or not, Steve could certainly hold a speech.

"They almost have what they want. absolute control. They shot Nick Fury, and it won't end there. If you launch those helicarriers today, hydra will be able to kill anyone that stands in their way, unless we stop them. I know that I'm asking a lot, WE are asking a lot, but the price of freedom is high, always have been… it's a price that we're all willing to pay. And if we're the only ones, then so be it, but i'm willing to bet we're not."

"Control room is refusing to launch" came Tony's voice over the comm. "Looks like they like you, cap."

A moment later, they heard a slight rumble, and Tony's voice came over the comms again. "Looks like a gunfight broke out, Carriers are launching. I can't shut 'em down."

"Make your way to the highest one, we've got the others covered." Ken said. He nodded to Steve, and jumped to the next carrier over, Touka following a scant few moments later.

The flight was rather quaint, considering that they were about to take out probably the largest thing they had ever tangled with. Yes, it was technically not alive, but it was the thought that counted.

When their short flight inevitably came to an end, they saw a surprisingly quite large amount of goons before them. "Aww, they brought us a present." Touka said, dropping her wings, as the mooks started shooting.

She tucked into a spiral pattern, crystallizing her Kagune, and and firing shards out of the mass. Downing six of the enemy soldiers before the two of them even landed.

Ken, not really caring about destruction, if he was being honest, simply tucked his Kagune around himself, not wanting to ruin his uniform even further, and flooded an extra two tentacles out slapping their guns aside, and impaling them. A few more shots to the back, and he simply flung the two he'd impaled at the two that were shooting. Four down, about thirty to go. Technically basic maths… he'd take the punchline at this point, since his interest had ended the moment they'd crushed as easily as back in their old world. At least the Chitauri had something interesting to fight.

"Bored already?" he asked his wife, sho moments ago had landed atop another black-clad goon, crushing his body to a pulp.

"I think i got blood in my boot." She complained, shaking the offending piece of footwear, a few droplets spilling out.

The mooks around them, having another group of ten to replace the nine they had lost, quickly revitalised their Courage,bringing their guns up, and preparing to fire at the two again.

"You do understand that we're bulletproof, yes?" Ken asked. Only to be drowned out by gunfire a half-second later. Quickly, still not wanting his outfit to be ruined, he jumped over their arc of fire, landing amongst them, bashing one brave soul's knife aside, slamming it into another's sternum, before pulling that guy's head off, and beating the first with it. The fact that his eyes popped out of his skull, and his neck crumpled to a negative length was enough of a sign that he was dead.

He elbowed another, and felt ribs break, seeing the man collapse from the corner of his eye, he grabbed his gun, shooting two of his friends in the face, the bullets weren't armour piercing, he concluded, after they failed to do more than scare the two guards he'd just shot, so he simply threw the rifle into one of them, knocking him or her out. He honestly didn't really care.

He tore an arm off the guy that was kneeling beside him, sternum and ribs still broken, and tore his arm off, beating another guy with it, snapping his neck, and the bone within the arm, making the latter useless.

The former still had use, however, ashe could use a person as a weapon many different ways. Specifically the Ulna and Radius in the forearms worked excellently as makeshift knives. He'd discovered this when he fought Jason, and used one of the larger man's bones as a torture device, and later as a toothpick, only to realise that it was adding more material than removing.

Discarding that train of thought, he simply grabbed the man's forearms, tore out all four bones, making sure to snap them to a sharpish point on the way out, and threw them at another three of his friends. The last, he tossed to Touka, who, having used a man's ribs as a similar weapon, and having managed to break her own discount dagger on a very scared man's forehead.

"Thanks," she said, sending him a blood-covered smile, Kakugan shining red, as she stabbed the poor fellow she had been holding up.

Quite bravely, a man managed to jump onto her back, most likely since she wasn't really paying attention, however she quickly disabused the man of the idea that it'd be an effective tactic, By deploying her kagune straight through the man's torso.

The blood spray was quite spectacular, The man, having lost the nerve connection to his arms, started to slide off, the rest of him being sliced into thirds when it came into contact with the plasma-like kagune.

"Cross?" she questioned, looking at a charging agent, who pulled out a rather wicked looking sword.

"No, it's his cousin, the crazy one, Ken said, breaking some poor sap's neck, skull, clavicles, and probably scapula. And now both ghouls understood what happens when you twist someone's head around six times by swinging them into the tailfin of a quinjet.

"Look the same," she mused, as she used her kagune to saw five people in half at the waist, sending the last off the edge of the carrier and into the turbine on the side. Both decided that they would prefer not dying by such a method.

"Ouch." Ken mused, ducking the swing from Discount Cross' knife. On second thought, the man did look a lot more muscular than the specialist that occasionally stopped for coffee at their shop.

Having had enough of the literal bloodbath, Ken quickly dispatched the stab-happy HYDRA agent, kicking him in the balls and then kicking his head off.

Absentmindedly, he caught the head, tossing it up and down a time or two, before being glared at by his wife.

"We don't play with our food." he put his hand behind his neck, laughing a little, and threw the now crossed out cross cranium down the turbine.

Obviously, Tony knew the layout of the Carrier better than them, since he quickly called. "Alpha locked."

"On my way there." Steve replied.

"I'll deal with strays," Tony stated.

"Fuck it, we'll tear through the hull." Touka said, deploying her kagune, and beginning to rip at the asphalt, Ken quickly joining her. Two floors and twenty seconds later, they ran into another squad of goons, although it was only seven this time.

Another run of the mill disemboweling, and and the squad was dealt with. Although they were having trouble imagining how they could possibly get more red, another floor and another squad quickly taught their imagination how exactly that could happen.

When they finally reached their destination, they practically had giblets where they definitely didn't want them. Touka had removed two teeth from her bra, and Ken had what he was pretty sure was half an eyeball stuck down the back of his legwear. How it got there, considering the long overcoat his uniform came with, he really didn't want to know.

Touka quickly switched the targeting board out with the one they'd been carrying, Ken calling "Beta Locked" into the radio.

"Trouble at three." Steve called, "Winter soldier."

Immediately, Ken and Touka ran over the the edge of the glass dome they were in, looking at Steve, fighting the apparently healed Bucky Barnes in hand-to hand. Agreeing to help him out, Touka quickly shattered the glass with her crystals, and launched herself towards the opposing carrier.

Ken, not having the ability to fly, grappled onto the the underside of the carrier he was on, crawling with increasing speed towards the edge, before leaping towards the final carrier.

Both, for a brief very, very moment, were thankful that the carriers' anti-air didn't target via object mass, and instead, heat signature.

Then the guns started pointing at them anyway. Touka was a natural at using her wings, and had no doubt that she'd make it, however Ken barely had any arial control, and had to tank the first few shots, quickly folding his Kagune into a ball-like shape, and dropping to the water below like a stone.

Two minutes later, the Carriers fired on each other. And two minutes later again, Ken could see Steve fall from the wreckage, Bucky still standing in the top, Touka beside him.

* * *

Two months later, and Touka's choice to save Bucky was already paying off.

While SHIELD was destroyed, so was HYDRA, and the two had a source of food again, thanks to Tony.

They had a list of places HYDRA was hiding, and a list of personnel they were after.

And they had one last thing. Steve's friend was starting to remember himself.

It'd take months more, possibly even years, but they were confident that it was possible, that the man behind the assassin wasn't as broken as they previously thought. Every other day, they'd take him out to museums, bring him little parts of his past, and slowly restore hope in his future. They'd learned a lot about the mental programming hidden within him, and had slowly been unravelling it. If they had their way, Bucky would never again be used as a weapon.

Another three months, and Bucky remembered something that gave him one of the trueest feeling of fear he'd ever experienced. He'd remembered two executions he'd performed on the side of a road.

Two people, parents of one of his now best friends, Howard and Maria Stark.

He had to make a choice.

 **I glossed over Iron man 3, and Thor 2, but in all honesty, they don't need to be told in this story, and getting out these two characters for other's individual stories seemed a bit too much. However with DC only 180 or so miles away from NY, the traveling in this seemed fairly doable.**

 **To those not In The know, a PID system is usually used to stabilise and correct, so on a helicarriers, it'd be the system that keeps the entire thing level. If one engine fails, it tells the system that it needs to compensate for that loss.**

 **I can conclusively say that there are at least 4 more chapters after this one. I've worked out the main plot throughout 4, 5 and 6, however 3 is still a bit illusive. I'll try and write a chapter or so every month. You should see this done before A4 comes out.**

* * *

 **Quick note from DEC 7th. Next update might be 4 weeks instead of 3. PoE 3.5 launch is this weekend, and I usually write the entirety of Sunday, The week after that, I've got some finals, and then guests for christmas. I'll try to write up most of it next sunday, and then finish it before the guests get here, however that isn't certain.**


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